Remaining State Audit Institution (SAI) Senate members have been appointed, but this was carried out with political attack on the independence and integrity of the institution.
Institute Alternative has been advocating for years for appointment of remaining SAI Senate members, as well as for the more active role of the Parliamentary Committee in regard to this issue, but this solution is something we couldn’t predict in the worst case scenario.
Abusing the absence of the opposition, Parliamentary Committee on Economy, Finance and Budget succeeded in something that the previous committee failed to do – The SAI Senate is now completed, but this was carried out by politically attacking independence and integrity of this Institution.
Radule Žurić seems like a natural choice of Duško Marković and Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) in their intention to regain full control over often disobedient State Audit Institution.
Current composition of the Committee, its President Vujica Lazović and its members, will be remembered as those who have destroyed the Stat Audit Institution as a rare example of independence, objectivity and integrity among control and supervisory institutions.
Although the former appointments of the members of the SAI Senate were the result of the politically proposed persons, they were also the result of a high degree of consensus in Parliament, as a result of their unquestioned professional and professional biography. In the end, these figures were not the key actors of the biggest political scandals, nor did they carry the burden of party and family relations with the key holders of political power in the Government which they should control.
After the first member of the Executive Board of the DPS, Nikola Kovačević, and then Zoran Jelić – DPS MP, the symbol of the Audio Recording Affair, and finally the suspended state auditor, Dusko Markovic’s best man, and member of the Council of the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption, Radule Žurić – irreversible damage on the reputation of the SAI and the quality of its work has been done.
Stevo Muk
President of the Managing Board
